Monitoring and maintaining the performance of a data network becomes increasingly complex and labor-intensive as the size of that network grows. For example, various telecommunication system operators provide High-Speed Internet (HSI) service to subscribing customers at their home and/or business using networks that span multiple states or other large geographic regions. Because of the size of such networks, many problems that occur are often the result of a condition at a customer location or in network facility (e.g., a hub, node or external distribution line) where service personnel are not present. When such problems occur, it is thus necessary to dispatch service personnel to the location of a reported problem.
A traditional approach to identification and correction of plant-related network issues has been to dispatch service personnel in response to each customer complaint. After arriving on site and investigating the customer complaint, a technician determines if there is a plant-related problem and then corrects that problem. There are several disadvantages to this approach. For example, a plant-related problem may not be noticed until a customer reports a problem. It may then be several hours or days before a technician is available, thus causing customer dissatisfaction. Moreover, many customer complaints are simply reports of no service or of other type service degradation. Such reports may convey little information about the source or extent of a problem.